News - Fr. John's Blog RSS Feed

Last week I devoted my column to St. Alypius, a close friend and associate of St. Augustine. This week I am devoting this column to another one of Augustine’s close friends, St. Possidius, the first biographer of Augustine’s. Possidius became a member of Augustine’s first monastic community in Hippo (modern day Annaba, Algeria). Both Saints Alypius and Possidius are remembered on May 16 on the Augustinian liturgical calendar.

Today I want to write about St. Alypius, who was a close friend of St. Augustine. In addition to being Augustine’s friend, Alypius was a member of Augustine’s monastic community in Hippo (the ancient name of Annaba, a coastal city in Algeria). Augustine once called Alypius “the brother of my heart.” Both shared the same errors as young men, and both shared the same conversion to Christ.

The years from 1936-1939 were very difficult ones for the Catholic Church in Spain. During these years of the Spanish Civil War more than 7,000 priests, friars, and religious sisters were martyred. In addition, over 3,500 lay persons were put to death for the cause of Christ. Besides Blessed Anselm Polanco, O.S.A., who was martyred in 1939, six groups of Augustinian friars totaling 98 persons, gave their lives for the cause of Christ.

Before I was ordained to the priesthood I was on the editorial board for Ancient Christian Writers, a book series of English translations of early Christian writers. The managing editor was Fr. Dennis Mc Manus, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile. Fr. McManus also worked as a liturgist for a number of years at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Camillo Barone, a staff reporter for the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) tells the story in a recent column in NCR about Fr. McManus and the late James Cardinal Hickey, former Archbishop of Washington. (Cardinal Hickey ordained me to the diaconate and priesthood in 1998.)

Today we continue the series of reflections on various beatified and canonized members of the Augustinian order.  Our saints today are Saints Liberatus, Boniface, and Companions.  Their feast day is celebrated on August 26. They were seven monks from North Africa who were martyred during the Christian persecutions of the late fifth century. They chose to live monastic life under the inspiration of Saint Augustine’s early communities and to meet death together rather than deny their faith.  Saints Liberatus, Boniface, and Companions are known today as the Augustinian Martyrs of Gafsa (Africa). 

I am continuing this series of canonized and beatified members of the Augustinian order. This week we are looking at Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), who was an Augustinian Canoness noted for her visions of Christ and other mystical gifts. You might be wondering what an Augustinian Canoness is. A canoness is a member of a religious community of women, historically a stable community, dedicated to the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in a particular church. Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich is called an Augustinian Canoness because her community followed the rule of Saint Augustine. Once again, I have relied on a website maintained by the Midwest Augustinians for much of the information in this column.

In my column for this week, I want to talk about another Augustinian Saint: Saint Ezekiel Moreno, O.A.R. He was born in Alfaro, Logrono, Spain on April 9, 1848. The family was materially poor but was firmly committed to the Catholic faith. As a teenager he entered the Augustinian Recollects, who are a reformed movement of the Augustinian friars and sisters that first emerged in Spain in the seventeenth century but only became a separate mendicant order in 1912. He professed his vows in the Order of Augustinian Recollects in Monteagudo (Navarra) in 1865.

I'm resuming our study of the Saints and beatified members of the Augustinian order. Today we look at Saint John of Sahagún, Priest, whose feast day is June 12. I have been helped in preparing this article by material on the website of the Order of Saint Augustine.

I'm going to interrupt my series on Augustinian Saints to devote a column to Robert Cardinal McElroy our Archbishop. My reason for doing this is that parishioners said to me recently that they really didn't know that much about him and what could I tell them about him so I thought I would do this as I'm doing this column on Cardinal McElroy.

Thomas “Kintsuba” Jihyoe of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian friar, along with 187 companions, was beatified on November 24, 2008. The ceremony for beatification too place in Nagasaki, Japan. “For all of us, this is a magnificent opportunity to renew our own faith, and to open our hearts to the inspiration of such a generous witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospel, Augustinian Prior General Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV) said. “In our world today, while most of us are not subject to physical dangers in professing our faith, we do find many situations of indifference and even direct opposition to the message of Christ and to the teaching of the Church. The strength and courage of Blessed Thomas of Saint Augustine can encourage each of us to renew our own commitment in giving our lives in service of the Gospel.

We continue to consider the lives of Augustinian Saints and Blesseds. Today we focus our attention on an Augustinian nun whom Pope Saint John Paul II called one of the “founders” of the Catholic Church in Canada: Blessed Catherine of Saint Augustine.

We are continuing this series of saints in the Augustinian tradition. Today we are looking at Saint Monica (323-387). Monica was born at Thagaste, Numidia Cirtensis, Western Roman Empire (present day Souk Ahras, Algeria. Her parents were north African and devout Christians. When she was about twenty-two, she was in a marriage by arrangement with Patricius (40) who was a Roman official. The mother of Patricius moved in with them. It was not an easy marriage. Patricius was verbally abusive to Monica and unfaithful to her. His mother was a difficult person to live with. By her patience and her prayers Monica was able to have both her husband and her mother-in-law become Christians just before Patricius died.

Today I am going to write about the Augustinian saint for whom Villanova University is named. Tomás Garcia y Martinez was born in 1488. He received his name Thomas of Villanova from the town in which he was raised (Villanueva de los Infantes, Ciudad Real, Spain).

One of the older buildings on the Villanova University campus was Tolentine Hall. I often went there to study when it became noisy in the dorm where I was living on campus. In time I became curious to find out more about the origin of the name of Tolentine Hall. I learned that it was named for St. Nicholas of Tolentine, the first Augustinian friar to be canonized after the Grand Union of the Order of St. Augustine in 1256. St. Nicholas of Tolentine is the subject of this week’s column.

Since Pope Leo XIV is an Augustinian, I thought it would be good to write a series of columns on Augustinian saints. Since I am writing this column on May 22, I thought it would be good to begin the series with a saint we commemorate today: Saint Rita of Cascia. She is a patron saint of difficult marriages, impossible causes, infertility, and parenthood.

Who are the Augustinians? They have come into prominence with the election of Pope Leo XIV (formerly Robert Cardinal Prevost, OSA), who is a member of the Augustinian Order. Some may remember the Augustinians because they staffed Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC from its founding in 1951 until 1989. I first encountered the Augustinians when I came to Villanova University as a freshman in September 1967. I met many Augustinians in my four years at Villanova. But I did not meet Bob Prevost, who was enrolled at Villanova two years after I graduated from there in 1971.

Much has happened since I wrote last week’s column. The Cardinal electors entered the conclave on Wednesday, May 7. By Thursday (May 8) afternoon we heard the news that a new Pope had been elected: Pope Leo XIV, formerly Robert Cardinal Prevost, OSA, who is a native of the southside of Chicago. I did not think that in my lifetime I would see someone born in the United States become Pope. But it happened. Like many alumni of Villanova University, I take great pride that a Villanovan has ascended the throne of Peter.

By the time you read this column, the Cardinals eligible to elect a new Pope may have concluded their work, the world may have seen the white smoke, and Dominique Cardinal Mamberti may have announced that we have a Pope using the Latin: Habemus Papam. But as I write this column, we are waiting for the conclave to begin. John Allen, the editor of Crux, which offers well-regarded and independent coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church, has been writing about the “papabile” of the day: Cardinals whom he thinks have a chance to be elected Pope. Here are some of the Cardinals that he has profiled: Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost, Anders Cardinal Arborelius, Mario Cardinal Grech, Cristóbal Cardinal López Romero, and Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith. John Allen is aware of the Italian saying that a “papabile” often goes into a conclave only to come out of it as a cardinal.

On Saturday April 26, 2025, Pope Francis was buried at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. Since that day, the entire Church has been in mourning over the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Our parish has joined the various cathedrals, basilicas, other parish churches, shrines, and chapels in praying for the repose of his soul and asking God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as the Bishop of Rome.

I am writing this column shortly after the announcement that Pope Francis died early on Easter Monday (April 21, 2025) at the age of eighty-eight.. The media will have published many stories about our recently deceased Holy Father. I want to mention two things that I remember during his visit to Washington. D.C. in September 2015.